In recent years, mobile stations have become “must have” devices for most people, in many countries. The communications that such devices offer, via wireless mobile communications network, enable users to talk and exchange various types of messages for business and personal reasons and to access information, all from or while traveling through any location where a network provides service. As the technology has advanced, the size of mobile stations has decreased, so that today most can be carried in a pocket or purse, clipped to a belt, etc. There are situations where it is desirable to determine the location of a mobile station, and various industry players have developed technologies to meet such demands. For example, in the US today, most mobile devices are equipped with Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receivers/processors sufficient to enable emergency services to obtain information as to the location of a device as part of the processing of an emergency call, e.g., to 911. The advanced location capabilities of such mobile stations, however, have also enabled service providers to offer services and applications today that will allow a user of a mobile station to learn their present location and possibly obtain information about that locale and/or related navigation information, via the mobile station itself.
Situations arise where it is desirable for another person to learn the location of a mobile station, and the service providers have developed technologies for many such situations. For example, mobile network service providers today offer at least some types of Mobile Location-Based Service (MLBS) that enable a user of or associated with one mobile station to locate a user of another mobile station, based on the location of the second mobile station. Examples of such services today include Family Locator (formerly Chaperone) offered by Verizon Wireless®, and Boost Loop offered by BoostMobile™.
Family Locator is a simple and secure method for parents to keep a closer tab on their children. The mobile stations are GPS enabled. Family Locator allows a customer (e.g., a parent) to view on a map a location of the Family Locator enabled phone of another customer (e.g., a child) and to receive alerts when the Family Locator enabled phone enters or leaves a particular zone.
Boost Loop expanded this type of location service to include keeping tabs on a wider range of friends and family member. In this connection, Boost Loop is another location-based social service that uses a mobile phone with built-in GPS to automatically update a customer location for a private list of friends. To illustrate, the customer downloads the Boost Loop software onto her mobile phone and publishes its location on a Boost Loop map. Thereafter, the customer may invite other friends who have installed Boost Loop to join the customer's networks. If friends accept such invitation, their locations will also be published on the map. As such, the customer can identify the locations of her friends in real-time on a map display on the customer's mobile station.
Although these mobile station location technologies allow a requesting device, as operated by a user, to monitor or learn the current location of a mobile station that is the “target” of a location information request or procedure, the existing technologies do not allow software applications to make a request for and be giving access to the location of a mobile station for performing software functions based on the location of that mobile station.
Hence, there is still a need for an improved/simplified technique for obtaining information as to the location of a mobile station.